Formerly known as Citizens for the Constitution, the Constitutional Amendments Committee developed TCP’s foundational report urging restraint in the constitutional amendment process. While the Framers recognized the charter might require change from time to time, they believed that our nation’s government must rest on a stable constitutional foundation, and that the amendment process must be reserved (as Madison argued in Federalist No. 49) for “great and extraordinary decisions.”
However, in recent years, constitutional amendment has too often become the favored first-step remedy—among advocates on both the left and the right—for all manner of perceived social ills, frequently dealing with matters of policy that are more appropriately the subject of legislation. TCP has continued to promote the committee’s recommendations and to counter hurried and poorly developed efforts to tinker with fundamental rights and liberties.
Mickey Edwards
Vice President and Director, Aspen Institute; Lecturer Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University; former Member of Congress (R-OK), 1977-1993 and Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee
Abner J. Mikva
Schwartz Lecturer and Senior Director, Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, University of Chicago Law School; Member of Congress (D-IL), 1969-1973 and 1975-1979, White House Counsel, 1994-1995, and Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, 1991-1994
Louis Michael Seidman
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
George Anastaplo
Professor of Law, Loyola University of Chicago; Lecturer in the Liberal Arts, University of Chicago; Professor Emeritus of Political Science and of Philosophy, Dominican University
Walter Berns
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Derek C. Bok
President Emeritus, Harvard University; Dean Emeritus, Harvard Law School; 300th Anniversary University Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Alan Brinkley
Provost and Allan Nevins Professor of History, Columbia University
John H. Buchanan, Jr.
Member of Congress (R-AL), 1965-1981
Dale Bumpers
Member of Congress (D-AR), 1974-1999; Counsel, Arent Fox LLP; Former Director, Center for Defense Information, 1999-2000
Sheila Burke
Smithsonian Institution, Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer; Executive Dean, 1996-2000 and Lecturer in Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Charles Carroll Carter
President Emeritus, Charles Carroll House of Annapolis
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean University of California, Irvine School of Law
Jesse H. Choper
Earl Warren Professor of Public Law and Dean Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law
Benjamin R. Civiletti
Senior Partner and Past Chair, Venable LLP; Attorney General, 1979-1981
David Cohen
Co-Director, Advocacy Institute
Robert H. Cole
Professor Emeritus of Law, University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law
Robert M. Cooper
Lawyer
James Andrew Courter
Member of Congress (R-NJ), 1979-1991
Michael Davidson
Former Legal Counsel, United States Senate
Drew S. Days III
Alfred M. Rankin Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Solicitor General, 1993-1996; ; Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, 1977-1980
Norman Dorsen
Stokes Professor of Law and Co-Director, Arthur Gartfield Hays Civil Liberties Program, New York University School of Law
Peter B. Edelman
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; former Assistant Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services, 1995-1996
Don Edwards
Member of Congress (D-CA) 1963-1995; former Chair, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights
Rosemary Freeman
Principal, Director of Public Affairs, Piper Rudnick; Deputy Director, State of Michigan Washington Office under Governor James J. Blanchard,1983-1990
Michael J. Gerhardt
Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law and Director, Center for Law and Government, University of North Carolina School of Law
Leslie K. Glassberg
Crystal Hill Advisors
Ronald Goldfarb
Attorney and author, Washington, D.C.
Jamie S. Gorelick
Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP; Vice Chairwoman, Fannie Mae Foundation, 1997-2003; Deputy Attorney General, 1994-1997
Stephen Hess
Senior Fellow Emeritus, Governmental Studies Program, The Brookings Institution; Distinguished Research Professor of Media and Public Affairs, the George Washington University
Philip Heymann
James Barr Ames Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Deputy Attorney General, 1993-1994
Shirley M. Hufstedler
Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1968; Secretary of Education, 1979-1981
Stanley N. Katz
Professor of Public and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs, Princeton University; President Emeritus, American Council of Learned Societies
Nicholas deB. Katzenbach
Attorney General, 1965-1966
Dr. Lawrence J. Korb
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Senior Advisor, Center for Defense Information; Director of Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, 1998-2002 ; Director, Center for Public Policy Education, the Brookings Institution, 1981-1993
Donald S. Lamm
Chairman, W.W. Norton & Co.
Elliott H. Levitas
Counsel, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP; Member of Congress (D-GA),1975-1985
Thomas E. Mann
Senior Fellow and W. Averell Harriman Chair, Governance Studies Program, the Brookings Institution
Paul Marcus
Haynes Professor of Law and former Acting Dean, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary
Paul McMasters
Former First Amendment Ombudsman, The Freedom Forum, 1995-present
Brenda G. Meister
Partner, DLA Piper; former Director of Congressional and Federal Relations, National Transportation Safety Board and White House Office of Presidential Personnel; former Deputy Director and Acting Director, Office for Victims of Crimes, Department of Justice
Elliot M. Mincberg
Vice President, General Counsel, and Legal Director, People for the American Way Foundation
William H. Minor
Partner, DLA Piper
Newton N. Minow
Senior Counsel, Sidley Austin LLP; former Chair, Federal Communications Commission
Henry P. Monaghan
Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law, Columbia Law School
Alan B. Morrison
Senior Lecturer in Law, Stanford University; Co-Founder, Senior Attorney, and former Director, Public Citizen Litigation Group
Nancy A. Nord
Acting Chairman, Consumer Product Safety Commission; former Director, Federal Government Relations, Eastman Kodak Company; former President, National Republican Lawyers’ Association; former General Counsel, Council on Environmental Quality; former Republican Counsel to House Commerce Committee
Penelope Payne
Former Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs
Robert S. Peck
President, Center for Constitutional Litigation
Jack N. Rakove
W. R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science, Stanford University
Estelle H. Rogers, Esq.
Director, Federation of Women Lawyers
Rabbi David Saperstein
Director and Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Clifford M. Sloan
Vice President and General Counsel, Washington Post Newsweek Interactive; Assistant to the Solicitor General, 1989-1991; Associate Counsel to the President, 1993-1995
Geoffrey R. Stone
Harry Kalven, Jr., Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago
David A. Strauss
Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Laurence N. Strenger
CEO, Managing Director and General Counsel, Ampton Investments, Inc.
Kathleen M. Sullivan
Stanley Morrison Professor of Law and Dean, Stanford Law School, 1999-2004
Cass R. Sunstein
Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago Law School
Don Wallace, Jr.
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; Chairman, International Law Institute
Peter J. Wallison
Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research; White House Counsel, Reagan administration; General Counsel, Department of the Treasury, Reagan administration
Stephen Wermiel
Associate Director, Program on Law and Government, American University, Washington College of Law; former Supreme Court Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
John H. Zentay
Partner, Piper Rudnick
George E. Bushnell Jr. (1999-2002; deceased)
Former President, American Bar Association
James C. Corman (1999-2000; deceased)
Former Member of Congress (D-CA)
John J. Curtin, Jr. (1999-2014; deceased)
Partner, Bingham McCutchen LLP; President, American Bar Association, 1990-1991
Lloyd N. Cutler (1999-2005; deceased)
Founder, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering; former White House Counsel, Carter and Clinton administrations
Dr. Robert A. Goldwin (1999-2010; deceased)
Resident Scholar and former Director, Constitutional Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Nelson W. Polsby (deceased)
Director, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California at Berkeley
Elliot L. Richardson (1998-1999; deceased)
Retired Partner, Milback, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy; Attorney General, Nixon administration
John Seigenthaler (2002-2014; deceased)
Chairman and Founder, The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University; President, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1988-1989; Administrative Assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1960-1961; Founding Editorial Director, USA Today, 1982-1991
Chesterfield H. Smith (1999-2003; deceased)
Partner, Wiley, Rein & Fielding; former Assistant to the Solicitor General; former Associate Counsel to the President, Clinton administration
Daniel Steiner (1999-2006; deceased)
Counsel, Ropes & Gray; former Vice President and General Counsel, Harvard University
Harold R. Tyler, Jr. (1999-2005; deceased)
Deputy Attorney General, Ford administration; former Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; former Co-Chair Miller Commission on Judicial Selection
Ronald H. Weich (resigned February 2009)
Former Chief Cousel, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Former Chief Counsel, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Senate Judiciary Committee (resigned February 2009 to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, United States Department of Justice)
Daniel W. Weil (1999-2006; deceased)
Partner, Chapman & Cutler
Charles Alan Wright (1999-2000; deceased)
Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts, The University of Texas Law School
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